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Kathy, (aka "Bessie"), and I began our beekeeping experience in the fall of 2008, when we began a year-long course in beekeeping through the Indian Creek Nature Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We got our first package of bees in April of 2009. At the suggestion of our daughter, Jessica, we are logging our beekeeping experience. Hope you find it interesting. It has been interesting, rewarding and entertaining for us as well.

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Hey, we've now doubled our number of beehives. It was nice day, upper 6o's and clear, little breeze--great day to do this. We had no advance warning, just knew the queen would arrive sometime after the third week in April. We got a call from the post office this morning saying they had a package with live queens in it and we could come pick it up before the post office opened if we wanted. I did wait until after it was open. The bees were in a thin white envelope, with holes in it clearly marked "LIVE QUEEN". It said to keep it out of the sun. She thought there could not possibly be a live queen bee in there and thought it had to be larva. I told her it would be in a cage in the package, too it out, checked and everything seemed fine. The queen and her attendants (about 4) were in a small plastic container with a tube on one end and a plug in a hole next to it. There was masking tape around the tube. I was not sure whether or not I was to open the small p…